Just a quickie...

It's Sunday and I am planning on doing some drawing today (honestly) but thought I better get a quick post out during naptime.

This page is all I've managed since the last post:

Note chubby, oats-covered hand of my 'photographic assistant'.

As you may have guessed from the subject matter, I have been spending most of my free time (i.e. bed- and naptime) attempting to sew stuff. A week or so ago I finally completed the growth chart. It was my first ever attempt at...I hesitate to say 'embroidery'...let's say 'hand-stabbing cloth with needle and thread'...but I'm happy enough with the result. I didn't even attempt hand-stitching the binding I just went with an artistic (cough, cough) wavy machine stitched line. But despite dubious technical execution the lovely Echino fabric saves the day.

Many thanks to Sarah at Narcoleptic in a cupboard for the design tips. (Don't stare at the binding Sarah...it'll make you queasy!)

If you don't have anything worth saying...draw

I don't have much to say for myself today and, as my mother used to frequently tell me: "If you don't have anything worth saying, don't say anything at all!". (To be fair to her, this statement usually came during a long exchange of colourful verbal abuse between my brother and myself). So here are some drawings.

I still haven't made up my mind. Is it better to draw with lots of detail from a photo, erasing allowed...
(Elaine from a photo)

Or do what people like Danny Gregory suggest; only draw in pen, no corrections possible...even when it results in dodgy proportions...
(Elaine sleeping, bum in air - from life)



Or stick with pencil but don't rub out because you're too lazy to go and find an eraser...?
(Some kind of orchids from life, with watercolour)

Excuses, excuses...

1. I was on holiday and was sociable
2. I had a vomiting bug
3. I had a huge pile of paperwork when I got back
4. I got a nasty cold which somehow got into my eyes so they were oozing pus
5. Nap times require so much energy to be enforced that I barely get any benefit from them
6. It is my patriotic duty to cheer on Team GB in any Olympic fixtures they are competing in
7. It would be jingoistic not to cheer on all other teams in random Olympic sports which I barely understand
8. I procrastinated. A lot.

Feel free to select any or all of the above 'reasons' for me not having posted in about 6 weeks. I can only hang my head in shame while promising to do better in the future.

This typical procrastination makes it all the more amazing that I finally finished a sketchbook...in less than a year! (I think I've only managed this feat once before; sad, but true).

Sitting on a beautiful quilt made by Sarah of Narcoleptic in a cupboard

 I think it helped that it was themed: Pregnancy and the first months after the birth. As I was making a record for myself I didn't worry so much about trying to create 'good' drawings as such. On the last page I recorded the attachment of the dreaded breast pump. Now there's an object to stop me getting too sentimental about the whole business! I felt so guilty for a long time about all the breast feeding problems I had but I've put it all behind me now. Mainly because I've realised there are continually new things to feel guilty about! Excellent. The lower part of the bottle in this picture is unscrewed from the top 'pump attachment' part and can be sealed with a screw on lid. I put some dried pasta in the bottle, screwed on lid and gave it to baby Elaine to play with.

 

She hadn't played with it for weeks until today. Somehow she managed to unscrew the top and I came upon her sucking on each of the pieces of dried penne before (thank God) spitting them out. This follows yesterday's picnic of grass, clover, a handful of sand and one large pebble which she enthusiasically sucked on for some time before I managed to hook it out, nearly losing a digit in the process.

I've not started a new sketchbook as such...I still have my travel moleskin (started in 2009...the shame!) but I cunningly left it at my parents in Scotland so won't get my hands on it before Halloween. I have a Paperchase one here to finally finish off. It's full of random stuff and I imagine it will continue that way. Plus I have a watercolour pad.
Here are the only two drawings I managed to complete in Scotland:

From the window of the Manse in Lybster, Caithness. It rained almost non-stop for the 3 days I was there.

More rain the next week kept me inside. The grandfather clock in Kilmorack House, the holiday house we rented with friends for a week

Finally, to prove I made an effort (once!) to do a drawing outside. I went to draw the old Kilmorack church and pushed on despite the rain starting...and then my pen dried up (yes, I'd only brought one). I took that as a sign and went back for tea and chocolate gingers.



Foiled again...